Aplaws is based on an open source Collaboration and Content Management System (CCM) — a set of tools for managing WEB based collaboration and website content. It was developed from the ArsDigita Community System (ACS) that was initiated at MIT by Philip Greenspun, who, together with several MIT colleagues, founded the company ArsDigita. ArsDigita was later acquired by Red Hat, and ACS was developed into the Red Hat CCM. Red Hat decided to make CCM available as a free Open Source project under the LGPL licence so it can now considered as OpenCCM, and a large share of the development is now user led.

Features that set it apart from other content management systems include:

Information CentricThe system is designed as an pool of information upon which different views can be set up to build a specific web site. Other content management system are build as a managed set of web pages.

Strong Categorization SystemThe system allows for poly-hierarchic categorization which makes complex content available to website visitors with varying interests and perspectives.

Semantic StructureInformation is organized into "content types" based on its semantic structure, this allows information to be accessed and systematically reused in different contexts.

Modular structureAll functions are provided in modules that can be combined during installation to produce a system that is specifically tailored to the users needs.

The Accessible and Personalised Local Authority Website System, APLAWS, is a special configuration of the CCM that was designed as part of a national drive to enable local governments in the U.K. to deliver services online. It was incorporated into the Local Authority Websites National Project, and between 2003 and 2005 the base system and the various website extensions were improved considerably. Because of its momentum APLAWS absorbed most of the development efforts over time and evolved into the central place of development.

There are other adaptions of the CCM available now.

ScientificCMS is another special configuration of the CCM that was designed to fullfill special requirements of scientific research organisations to provide information to the scientific community and the public as well as provide means of worldwide cooperation on scientific projects and publications work. The work was started at University of Bremen, Germany. Have a look at ​ScientificCMS web page for further details.

Additionally, efforts are focused on building custom-designed adaptations for Learning Grid websites, self-supporting group websites, and other special needs as well as on building a general purpose content and collaboration management system.

All these spins share a common code base developed in close cooperation and ensuring seamless compatibility among all modules, maintained here at Fedorahosted.

Further information about the directions of the projects progression can be found at the evolvement? page.

How to obtain

Binary distribution, including an installation and update guide, source code distribution, and other documentation is available on each project's WEB site.

How to use

Detailed information for authors, editors, publishers and managers is available at each project's WEB site (see above).

Additionally you may go to ​sourceforge repository. This is still a good source of information about basic tasks, but some of the documentation refers to the former Red Hat CCM product and is outdated, and some new features are missing.

The project also provides WIKI-based online documentation with recent information that is not yet included elsewhere.

How to contribute

As noted, the management and development is now largely in the hands of the user community. New members are welcome! The development is currently led by London Borough of Camden for APLAWS and University of Bremen for ScientificCMS.

You may participate in the project as a developer. Detailed information about the development process and development policy are provided on the developers page.

You may contribute patches that you find useful and wish to share with other users, on an occasional base. More information is provided here.

You may share your ideas for future growth and development on our Wish List.

Copyright Notice

All the content of the APLAWS Wiki pages are Copyright (c) 2004-2008 London Borough of Camden, UK, or the respective author(s).

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the ​GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.

More information about the license can be found ​here. A copy of the license is available ​here.